Search games...

Rise of Industry – Our Early Access Preview

March 2, 2018 11:20 am - Written by Joe Mills

What is Rise of Industry?

Rise of Industry is a complex strategy game in which you are the CEO of your own blossoming company – building an industrial empire that produces and delivers essential products to a growing population. The game has recently become available for purchase on GOG and Steam in early access and I was incredibly excited to get my hands on it, especially since the materials I had read online compared it to OpenTTD, Factorio andCities: Skylines – high caliber bedfellows.

In reality, Rise Of Industry draws techniques from all three of these games, but never aspires to be them, forging it’s own path instead. The transport management comes into play when moving your goods from city to city, the automation when you are building your complex production line and the city management as you provide the cities with your products and see them grow into sprawling metropolises. But the thing that really thrilled me about Rise of Industry was it’s unique mechanic; the way the cities’ desires adapt. Demand and supply alters the cities needs, which effects your decisions about what to produce next. This is a game where the AI actively inspires your next move.

But what do you actually do?

The best/only way to play this game is to start by surveying the needs of all of the cities on the map – from these observations you can decide what product your business will make its millions in. The next step is to choose the specialisation that allows you to build this product and then spending Research and Development points to unlock the buildings you need. Lay your buildings down, co-ordinate your vehicles, make sure your production line is working correctly and then watch the money roll in! The needs of the cities will vary, demanding that your business constantly adapts, which is enabled by unlocking more industries in the research tree and adapting your production lines.

What do I think of the game?

Personally I think Rise of Industry will become a great game, I’ve already enjoyed my time with it immensely. Additions such as pollution control and more intelligent AI rival companies will add more complexity to the game, and the promised multiplayer excites me no end.

It has received quite mixed reviews on both Steam and GOG, which I personally find hard to understand. I would imagine the lower score reviews are because this game does not hold your hand. The tutorial is solid, but only covers farming and therefore branching out into other industries takes a certain amount of intuition and common sense. Although simple when you get your head round it, the game could be more clear. I can see that some people may get stranded very early on if a few bad decisions are made.

A lot of the smaller criticisms I have about the current gameplay however, have already been addressed by the developers online and improvements are coming thick and fast with each patch – the research tree, for example, has been changed countless times in the drive for perfection, and it’s slowly but surely getting there.

Should you buy this game right now?

Yes. I think that Rise of Industry in it’s current state definitely offers enough to be worth the purchase, it’s complex enough to keep me entertained for hours and, above all, the reason I believe you won’t regret your purchase is that the development team seem to be very active and trustworthy – therefore I firmly believe that you are purchasing a game that will only become better. So if you love Capitalism and building your own successful business then Rise Of Industry is a game for you!

Latest Games

Community

Get sandbox news direct to your inbox by entering your email address:

This website is designed to promote news and information about video games and is not intended to infringe upon copyright laws, or any copyrighted material. All graphics used are for promotional purposes only for the relevant game, and all artwork or graphics belong to the respective owners. If any material is seen to be offensive or infringing upon the owners rights, please contact us immediately and we will remove the content.